Just two weeks after the start of quarantine, the baby of Gemma Brown , Bertie , woke up covered with rash and began to bruise. Know its history.
Gemma told The Sun newspaper that Bertie started complaining and crying, so she called her GP and said it was probably viral and that she would give her acetaminophen. But she knew that something else was wrong with her son.
"His temperature was 42 °. The next morning he was completely covered in a rash. I called the doctor and told them I would take him directly to the hospital," he said.
Gemma also revealed that her son had started to turn "black", as if he had bruises, something believed to be a new symptom of the coronavirus.
Bertie underwent a series of tests for sepsis and meningitis, and Gemma asked if her son's illness was related to the coronavirus.
"They told me that was impossible, but I had a hunch," he admitted.
Weeks later, doctors began to notice a worrying increase in children who were seriously ill and, like Bertie, seemed to suffer from extremely high fevers and unexplained skin rashes.
Given this, London doctors issued a warning of a mysterious new inflammatory syndrome, similar to Kawasaki disease or toxic shock syndrome.
The life-threatening disease has been called multi-system inflammatory syndrome, which some believe is linked to SARS-CoV-2.
Although Bertie has not been formally diagnosed, Gemma is convinced that her son has this condition.
"I was told it was an autoimmune response to an inflammatory disorder that causes fever, swelling and rashes in the inflamed blood vessels," he said.
Doctors told him that the little boy would need immunoglobulin intravenously, but within a few minutes of receiving the treatment, he started to get worse.
According to his mother's statements, he was going crazy and spinning. Also, her heart rate and blood pressure skyrocketed.
The experts decided to withdraw the treatment and restart it 12 hours later at a much lower dose.
Gemma was scared, but luckily Bertie had no reaction.
Over the next five days, Bertie improved and Gemma asked again about the possible link to COVID-19, but doctors told her it was not related.
It wasn't until a few weeks later that Gemma started seeing reports of symptoms similar to those her son had. "I was convinced that was what I had," she said.
Scientists now believe that multi-system inflammatory syndrome develops two to three weeks after coronavirus infection, which may be asymptomatic.
"There's just not enough known about the link between COVID-19 and this new Kawasaki-like illness. Bertie has to have an annual cardiac exam until she's a teenager," she said.
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